A long run for Pablo Sandoval as SF Giants win Cactus opener

Manager Bruce Bochy must feel like part of his spring preparation is practicing perfect punchlines. He wasted no time after the Giants beat the Angels 4-1 in Saturday’s Cactus League opener.

Pablo Sandoval

Morry Gash/AP

Pablo Sandoval, on base after hitting an RBI single, nearly got picked off by Angels pitcher Billy Buckner. Sandoval bolted for second on the next pitch and kept going, 270 feet in all, to score on Jackson Williams’ double into the left-field corner.

Sandoval made it, but all 10,779 fans at Scottsdale Stadium could see that the Panda’s tank was nearly dry.

Cue Bochy:

“It’s hard to carry that piano on your back. Then he stopped and played a song between third and home.”

Sandoval was not about to fib and say that song was “Flight of the Bumble Bee.”

“When I stepped on third base,” he said, “home plate was moving away from me.”

The upcoming World Baseball Classic makes this an unusual spring for Sandoval and the other nine Giants who are going.

He had to try to score from first in a meaningless game just nine days after Valentine’s Day because the Venezeulan third-base coach surely will send him in the same situation in two weeks.

Similarly, Ryan Vogelsong needs to build up to 50 or 60 pitches a game before he leaves for in a week. He got halfway there Saturday in two innings against Angels minor-leaguers.

Vogelsong allowed two hits and a walk, which was not necessarily bad. He said it helps to pitch “in traffic” to practice working out of jams.

“Mentally I need to be as close to the first game of the season as I can be,” he said. “In certain situations if you’re concentrated and focused it could overcome maybe the lack of being physically ready. The mental part of it is just as important.”

That message he got directly from the U.S. pitching coach, Greg Maddux, in a phone call.

In another example, the entire stadium had to know Angel Pagan would try to steal second after hitting a leadoff single in the fourth inning. Team Puerto Rico is going to need his legs to be in July shape soon.

Eh, Pagan probably would have run without the WBC looming.

“I’m getting ready for the season,” he said. “People are like, ‘You’ve got to speed it up for the classic.’ I’m not trying to speed it up for the classic. I’m getting ready for another championships season and that starts today. You have to go out there and get something out of it. Because it’s the first game I don’t have to take it easy.”

Bochy was happy with how “crisp” his team looked in the opener.

Relievers Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and George Kontos each pitched scoreless innings. Chad Gaudin, bidding for the final bullpen spot, pitched two innings and allowed the Angels’ run, which should not have scored. Sandoval dropped a potential inning-ending double-play chopper and got only one out as the run scored.

Buster Posey caught the first three innings and scalded an inside pitch the other way for an out. Outfield prospect Gary Brown doubled into the left-field corner and scored on a pair of groundballs.